So I had COX (orange county) tech come out to install my 2 cable cards on my S3. Only issue was not getting the HD tier (ESPN, DISC) this was only because the guy at the office have them on the wrong downstream. Second level support fixed it. Both cards worked right out the gate. No issues He was out less then an hour.

My only question is I still don't understand on the sport packages like center ice. If I pay for in advance why does it need 2-way comm for it?? How is it differant then say HBO. I'm not interacting with the box like PPV pulling menus and ordering movies. Also if I order a movie online why cant they pipe it to my card #??

So I had COX (orange county) tech come out to install my 2 cable cards on my S3. Only issue was not getting the HD tier (ESPN, DISC) this was only because the guy at the office have them on the wrong downstream. Second level support fixed it. Both cards worked right out the gate. No issues He was out less then an hour.

My only question is I still don't understand on the sport packages like center ice. If I pay for in advance why does it need 2-way comm for it?? How is it differant then say HBO. I'm not interacting with the box like PPV pulling menus and ordering movies. Also if I order a movie online why cant they pipe it to my card #??

You can get Center Ice. I have it with cableCARDS. And you can order PPV by calling it in. It's a one way device. You just can't order by remote.

I'd like to know how you're getting it cause I've called and they say no that it's 2way not one way. Do you know how they did it? Don't they just have to point the channels to the cards .

That's all there is to it. It's not like you are requesting a game. Every game is on every night on any of the available 10 channels. AAMOF, I'm watching a game right now via my one way cableCARDs (and no STB.) You should ask for a Manager and if that doesn't work, try Center Ice.

Do I need any special equipment to view iN DEMAND programs? Do I need a cable box, for example?

In order to order a pay-per-view movie or event you need a set-top addressable decoder box. This enables your cable company to authorize your household to receive pay-per-view programs or other scrambled programming like HBO or Showtime.

Well Cox came out and hooked me up, but my TiVo keeps on rebooting. It was working fine earlier in the day, but this evening I was recording two shows at once and the unit would freeze and then reboot.

I had my install on Tuesday and it went pretty well. The installer (obviously a contractor) came here and when I told him it was a Tivo he said "man I don't think Cox cable cards work in Tivos." I said of course they do, and he then responded "well do you want me to install one of them in your Tivo and then the other in your TV?" Well my TV doesn't even have a cablecard slot.

So he called the office, and they confirmed that YES cox cablecards do infact work in Tivos. So he installed them, of course was being very impatient and wouldn't wait for the screen to pop up (with the host data and stuff). So they finally did for card 1 and it was installed no problem. Same thing started to happen with card 2 before i finally said "maybe you should just wait a couple minutes." So he installed card 2 finally and everything has been working great. I thought for sure I'd have problems but none so far.

I have a new TiVo coming in tomorrow to replace my broken one, does anyone know if I will have to have Cox back out to move the CableCARDs or can I just do it myself and they will work?

They definitely won't work. Whether Cox will let you give them the info over the phone or make you pay to have a tech come out so that they can read the numbers off the screen to someone on the phone is another question all together.

Cox OKCís installation charge for the CableCARDs was $45.00. My total cable bill went down by $10.00 a month as a result of my having substituted the two CableCARDs in the S3 for the SA 8300HD DVR, which I had been renting from Cox.

Cox OKCís installation charge for the CableCARDs was $45.00. My total cable bill went down by $10.00 a month as a result of my having substituted the two CableCARDs in the S3 for the SA 8300HD DVR, which I had been renting from Cox.

Did your OKC Cox Tech seem to understand Tivo? I'm preparing to jump from my 8300HD to S3 but I was nervous about Cox's support on installation in the OKC area.

Hey all. I got my S3 two weeks ago and have been using it with my antenna while I was waiting for cox fairfax to bury a wire. The tech (who was a cool guy) came out today and installed my cable cards. We put both the cards in, one at a time, and then he called in the card numbers. The tech on the other end of the phone line sent eight "hits". We went through the guided setup and then waited about half an hour, and, while all of the channel names showed up, all the channels were just black screens on both cards. The tech called and talked to someone else who sent another "hit" and all of a sudden card #2 could tune to all of the channels. The tech requested more "hits" for card #1 and explained to me that it sometimes can take a while for the channels to show up. I let him leave.

He called about four hours later to make sure I was getting all my channels. I checked card #1 and it was getting local high definition channels and a few of the cable access and local government channels. Not local SD channels, no other basic cable channels, and no premium channels. Card #2 was just fine. The tech said he'd call me back.

He called back about 15 minutes later to say that he had requested they send me a bunch more "hits" for card #1, and admitted that I may need a replacement card, but that I should be patient. It's been six hours and there is still no change.

Did your OKC Cox Tech seem to understand Tivo? I'm preparing to jump from my 8300HD to S3 but I was nervous about Cox's support on installation in the OKC area.

Any problems so far?

Thanks

I have a friend that lives in OKC and he had a lot of trouble getting his S3 working correctly. It's not really the tech that comes to your house that needs to know what they're doing, it's the person back at the main office that does the actual activation. All the tech really does at your house is plug in the card and then send a bunch of numbers to the main office. It's those idiots that never seem to know what they're doing. It took Cox about three trips to get his S3 working correctly and the problem was always the idiots back at the main office who had no clue how to activate a cable card.

I had no problems here in Tulsa, but I think we're on a different system. We have a motorola system and I think OKC has Scientific Atlanta. That may make a difference.

I have a friend that lives in OKC and he had a lot of trouble getting his S3 working correctly. It's not really the tech that comes to your house that needs to know what they're doing, it's the person back at the main office that does the actual activation. All the tech really does at your house is plug in the card and then send a bunch of numbers to the main office. It's those idiots that never seem to know what they're doing. It took Cox about three trips to get his S3 working correctly and the problem was always the idiots back at the main office who had no clue how to activate a cable card.

I had no problems here in Tulsa, but I think we're on a different system. We have a motorola system and I think OKC has Scientific Atlanta. That may make a difference.

Thanks for the feedback. We do have SA in OKC. You confirm what I've been hearing so, I guess I'll just take a big breath and dive in. Who knows, maybe the Cox folks have learned something since your friend got his installed...

I just wanted to report a good experience with Cox Phoenix. They installed my Series3 Cablecards with no problems. I called and they confirmed that they understood what the Tivo is and knew it would be two cards. When the installer arrived I asked if he had two cards, and he did. I also asked if he had ever installed a Tivo before - he said "I think so." That made me a bit nervous, but he did take the instructions and follow them. The only problem he had was that he went ahead and inserted the second card too soon. The head end technician actually told him to take it out - said she had a bulletin about only installing one card at a time. She also talked him through getting the right information - he wanted to give her the TV model info (it doesn't even take Cablecards). After that it went smoothly. He verified I had all channels on both tuners (took about 10 minutes for them all to come in) and was out in about 45 minutes total.

I finally got frustrated enough with the Passport software on the Motorola 3416 Cox gave me and the ridiculously tiny 160GB hard drive to drop the $600 on an S3.

Has anybody had any luck getting Cox to let you pick up the cable cards and do a self install? The price sheet certainly doesn't say anything about requiring professional installation on the cable cards, not that that really means anything. Even so, adding an extra $30 onto the cost of the TiVo and the 500GB drive I'm going to put in it isn't all that much more, but I'd still rather not give them any more if I don't have to!

The TiVo will be in Tulsa...

Now my only debate is whether to swap out their DVR for a standard HD box (so I can keep using onDemand) or to forget the cable box entirely.

I'm in Tulsa too. I checked and assuming you already have digital cable then the two cable cards will be $1.99 each per month and you'll have to pay $30 install for the first card and $15 for the second.

Until very recently, I also lived in Springdale. Small world, I guess.

I know that if they require somebody to come out to do the install, I'll have to pay for the install; I was just hoping that someone had previously been successful in convincing them not to send someone out to do it. I'd rather drive over to their office than pay them $30 or $45. Even if they do require someone to come out, I think we'll have a long discussion about how it is they feel justified in charging me two installation fees for one device.

I don't beleive anyone has been successful in getting Cox to alllow a self-install. They charged me for both cards but I was able to get Customer Service to take one of the install charges off after I got the bill.

He called back about 15 minutes later to say that he had requested they send me a bunch more "hits" for card #1, and admitted that I may need a replacement card, but that I should be patient. It's been six hours and there is still no change.

Anyone have any ideas? Being patient is difficult for me!

This is a common problem with Cox as they are used to sending "hits" to their digital boxes. This will not work with your cable cards.

Have them send a "cold hit" to the cards. That should take care of it.

I tried getting Cox in Tulsa to let me do a self install, but they would not allow it. It's ridiculous, but I can somewhat understand why they do it. Physically installing the cards is simple, but then they have to send in a bunch of numbers for each card to the main office where the real activation takes place. They used their computer to send it right into the system. It would take forever to try and read that many numbers to somebody over the phone and you would probably end up getting one wrong anyways. Just hope that you get somebody competent at the main office, that's the person that will most likely determine whether you have a good install or not.

Oh, if they bring a computer and do it online, that's at least a decent reason for not allowing a self install. I was under the impression that they called in to get the numbers entered into the system anyway. Now that I think about it, when the guy was here installing the 3416, replacing the splitters, and all that he called in the box numbers. Odd.

Either way, they really should note on the price list that a self install isn't available with cable cards.

I have a friend that lives in OKC and he had a lot of trouble getting his S3 working correctly. It's not really the tech that comes to your house that needs to know what they're doing, it's the person back at the main office that does the actual activation. All the tech really does at your house is plug in the card and then send a bunch of numbers to the main office. It's those idiots that never seem to know what they're doing. It took Cox about three trips to get his S3 working correctly and the problem was always the idiots back at the main office who had no clue how to activate a cable card.

I had no problems here in Tulsa, but I think we're on a different system. We have a motorola system and I think OKC has Scientific Atlanta. That may make a difference.

Well, yesterday I took off work for the cablecard install. The Cox tech started the event by saying how pleased he was to finally see a Tivo... it went downhill from there. Nice young man and to his credit I believe he did what was necessary from his end, but...

We now have about 1/4 of the channel lineup which is strange since this includes some analog, some SD Digital, some HD Digital, some OTA, but no premium encrypted channels. Both cards appear to report about the same channels.

Question... after the numbers have been transferred to the home office and the system responds, did your cable guy do a "test channels"? We did and observed a banner on a black screen for each channel expected.... but later (much later) discovered there was apparently supposed to be a picture displayed as well. I discovered only the few channels we receive actually will display a picture. Not knowing a picture was actually supposed to be there we continued the install with card 2 and basically observed the same thing with the banners.

Believing we were receiving all of the channels I let the cable tech go while I ran guided setup. This ultimately revealed the present situation with only a few channels actually being received.

Cox is supposed to return today, but I'm concerned that we may not know what to tell the office with respect to "reconditioning" the two existing cards. Is the appropriate solution to go through the basic card installation again, only stay with card one until you can verify all channels are being received on the "Test Channels" menu? Or will new cards be required?

I've searched this forum and the Tivo website for some detail on card installation only to find this is apparently some sort of state secret. Does anyone know of any info on this subject which may assist me in helping Cox to correctly handle their end?